Avant-Garde Maldito Video Poetry Festival – Albacete, Spain –
Maldito (11–17 November) began in 2017 and it has really come of age this year with a comprehensive curation of creative films from around the world and its online presence via FILMIN. What makes it unique is the approach by Javier Garcia, festival director and his team. You can enjoy a party vibe with avant-garde events, electronic music and poetry ‘that is danced’, videopoetry of course, but also seminal international poetic cinema. Maldito not only looks for new ideas and approaches but also creates a hub for such events, and has become a major festival on the poetry film circuit with a strong curatorial eye.
This year Maldito is asking all the questions that I am fascinated by, and have discussed in the publication The Poetics of Poetry Film (Intellect Books, 2021), such as ‘How does video poetry differ from experimental cinema etc. etc.’ On Wednesday 13th there will be a really interesting round table discussion at the Municipal Museum in Albacete to ‘determine what this new discipline is exactly. Those taking part are Isaías Griñolo (video creator), Clara López Cantos (video poet and film director) and Samkale (video poet) with David Trashumante (poet) as moderator.
For me, another really important examination of the subject is a workshop for EAA students by David Trashumante, who ‘runs a three-year Seminar ¿Nuevas Prácticas Poéticas? which he coordinated for the University of Valencia. This introduces and defines subgenres of postmodern poetry such as videopoetry, cyberpoetry, polypoetry, postpoetry, performance poetry, stage poetry…’ Here he encourages poetic experimentation, and an introduction to contemporary avant-garde poetry. I wish that this had been available ten years ago!!!
There will be also be a videopoetry retrospective screening the best works from the annual competition, held at the Teatro Circo de Albacete which I will not miss. A really good innovation on the part of the organisers. The poetic cinema includes historical documentaries, for example, Miles in Bello. Juan Bernier in the Spanish War – a documentary with direction by Rafael Bernier and Juan Antonio Bernier; and Carlos Edmundo de Ory. The game and the word, a documentary about the Andalusian ‘iconoclastic poet’ from Cadiz directed by Jose Luis Hernandez Arango.
The videopoetry competition will happen at the Circus Theatre, Albacete, on Friday 15th, with yet another highly talented and creatively innovative group of finalists. My film Selfie with Marilyn with poem by leading American poet Heidi Seaborn won in 2021 so I am particularly keen to see this screening. I was also invited to be one of the jurors for the winning film so I have had a wonderful but difficult time over the last few days, narrowing down contenders. Films can be seen such as Croatian team (director) Arinovic and poet Anaïssa Ali with the film Unbreakable and cameraless cinema; or poetic reciting to a drone, from the balcony of a building with direction by Sofia Lenski and Adrian Guterman and poetry by Juan Pablo Di Lenarda. A number reflect on climate change, and the interconnection between humans and the environment, and our reaction to the uncertainty of the future, such as Eyrie with poem and film by Eni Derhemi.
The politics of living in the turmoil of the world today can be found in Confessions an examination of what ‘homeland’ means by Andisheh Bagherzadeh (Tehran, 1993) a film reflecting ‘lost memories’ of life in Iran. Also a warning on navigating the role of women in relation to men in the French film Letter to my daughter with direction by Michael Maurissens and poetry by Amee Slam; or Mont Carver’s Mutations, a filmic account of her response to her father’s near-death experience whilst away from home without health insurance.
A number of films reflecting on a fractured, transient or blurred sense of identity and place such as the Spanish film One sky. All the skies with poem and film by Samkale, or British poet and filmmaker Laurie Huggett’s All I Loved which is inspired by ‘childhood wanderings through graveyards and one particular grave. With my co-juror and festival organiser, Linda Cleary, I also included this evocative film in the Women in Word festival in Penzance last summer.
One Sky. All the Skies
And then again we can discover the extraordinary from the everyday, as in the unmissable Spanish film A fish is a fish is a fish directed by Alberto Pombo with poem by Marilar Aleixandre. I will just quote the synopsis directly: ‘A portrait of Fisterra and of the entire Galician sea world, captured on the Costa da Morte. These are the hands and eyes of Alexandre Nerium, poet and sailor, the nets his father carried and the ‘clean’ ones where the rapante hides. A rose is a rose is a rose and therefore, a fish is a fish is a fish. Seafaring erudition, wild toponymy, love songs and saltpeter. Sardines are suspicious.’
https://malditofestival.com/seleccion-oficial-viii-concurso-internacional-de-videopoesia-2024
POSTPONEMENT DUE TO FLASH FLOODS
I am very saddened to add I was invited to present a retrospective of my own work at Maldito this year along with Frame to Frames : Your Eyes Follow – the bilingual, ekphrastic poetry anthology with linked films. Unfortunately I felt this had to be cancelled due to the horrific flash floods in South East Spain. I would add this was my personal decision, also based upon an upcoming operation. Maldito will be an amazing event, better than ever before. My retrospective will happen in two years at their major Ten Year celebration.
